Hi there Charlotte! Can you give us a rundown of your Melbourne Cabaret Festival show, 26 & Under?
Sure! The show is basically about being a “young person” and what that means. It’s made up of experiences from my own life that are hopefully very relatable.
Could you tell us a bit about the music you’ll be bringing to the show?
Myself, accompanist Greg Lavell, and my cast of three are going to be singing beautiful harmonies and playing a whole bunch of instruments – piano, ukulele, accordion, violin, singing saw, and other weird percussion instruments. It’s definitely got dark folk vibes. More of a nod to European cabaret and vaudeville. There’s some Jacques Brel along with som Leonard Cohen, Nico and Devendra Banhart.
You talk a lot about growing up as a millenial in your show – what’s 26 & Under got to offer young artists across Melbourne?
I think millennials like to laugh at ourselves. If anything the show is essentially me saying “this is what it’s like, you feel me?” I think the show offers a sense that we’re not alone, and that the struggles of our generation can be put into an art form as unique and wonderfully expressive as cabaret.
What are some of the stories you’ll be telling and what are some of the characters that appear during the show?
There are love stories weaving in and out of the show, some commentary on inter-generational tension, stuff about career-related anxiety, existential crisis. My cast are a wacky bunch and the characters they’re playing are freaky, bordering on nightmarish – there’s the infamous “duck people”, my long-lost identical twin sister, but more than that I cannot say. You’ll have to find out for yourself.
